


Time is The Devil

by AceandShadow



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe, Anger, Asher being a full-on nerd, Being Lost, Character Death, F/F, Hope, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Mild Language, Obsession, Recovery, Shin Malphur super sneaky, Timeline What Timeline, why is Saint-14 so angry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:48:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 19,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24831112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceandShadow/pseuds/AceandShadow
Summary: In an alternate universe, the Pigeon and the Phoenix do not exalt in their own way. Their lives have switched and Saint-14 is left consumed by his greatest failure. His work to rectify his mistake ate him from the inside out for years until he assembles an unlikely team to help put his pain to an end and assault the Black GardenBut when each member of a team has a different agenda, it can be hard for things to go according to plan in a place as uncertain as the birthplace of the Vex - especially when rumours circle of a Vex Mind that thinks like a human, leaving the team wondering just what has been happening under their noses the entire time...and to whom...
Relationships: Araeya/Kallori, Osiris/Saint-14 (Destiny)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 21





	1. One Mistake to Top Them All

**Author's Note:**

> this is an alternate universe where some of the characters' personalities and roles may have shifted slightly from the ones we have come to know and it might take a couple of chapters to get going - it was more difficult than anticipated to set the scene how I wanted it XD

Araeya and Kallori strolled through the City, hand in hand on their day off, taking in the City sights. They had come so far since the Warmind Incident when Rasputin was corrupted and attacked Earth. It was the simpler times that reminded them that pain fades and troubles waiver. Every problem they faced, they knew that fate chose long before the problem and they were merely there to act out the story told.

The City and the citizens were peaceful on days like that and the two enjoyed wandering the streets, taking time for themselves while they could. Araeya was almost always on duty on behalf of Zavala to train up raid teams and help the orders of the Consensus in their research on the Fallen. She was the most experienced in Eliksni readings and translations.

Kallori was often training in the Crucible if not studying the Cabal. Her job was to indirectly teach her teammates the art of combat through demonstration. She topped the leaderboard every time. Her only downfall would be when she loses her temper and ditches the match. Shaxx would always say that was the reason he could employ her to be a Sherpa. Not a week went by when she wouldn’t get a suspension and so she’d have to make up the time elsewhere and where better than patrolling Nessus for Failsafe on behalf of her favourite people – the Vanguard.

Relations between the two Guardians and the Vanguard were always strained. Most of Kallori’s relationships were strained – even with her Ghost, Spark. The two of them were perfectly fluent in sarcasm and rarely spoke any other way.

It wasn’t very often that the pair would get assigned a mission in the same fireteam and they would snap at the opportunity as soon as they could – they were the perfect team and worked in complete sync with one another.

They had a major operation to conduct in a matter of days – Saint-14 had asked them to make up team numbers in an assault on the Black Garden. Neither understood Saint’s obsession with the Vex, or what attacking the Black Garden would do to benefit the City, but they were happy to oblige in the name of defense, although Saint-14 was rather adamant that Kallori would be needed. Araeya didn’t mind at first. She was just happy that they were both wanted by the same person on their team.

Anything that could strengthen the City against what is to come.

Araeya was the one who found Saint-14’s sixth member by suggesting he take their friend and his protégé – Skivay. She didn’t get a whole lot of experience in team assaults and so she was rather excited to be a part of something so major.

Her and Cynder – her Ghost – were the team that every Guardian and Ghost wished they could be. Cynder was the perfect balance between motivating and sympathetic. He was always there, in more ways than one.

Saint’s other team members included Asher Mir and Shin Malphur.

Asher Mir was Saint-14’s next best bet against the Vex. Asher had one arm that wasn’t his – it was of a Vex nature, but it wasn’t inflicted on him against his will. He inflicted it on _himself._ He was experimenting on Vex augmentation as the Iron Lords had once attempted something similar with SIVA all those decades ago. It didn’t go completely to plan, however, for Asher could not control the level of augmentation and, as a result, the technology used on his arm continued to spread, infecting other parts of his body – including his internal organs.

He would one day, inevitably die.

But his knowledge of the Vex was near parallel to that of Saint-14 and the two trusted each other with everything they could give. When Asher would come to the Tower to give Saint his weekly report, the two would become inseparable and people were lucky if they could get a word in edgeways.

Shin Malphur was chosen for his ability to hunt and track. Araeya looked up to Shin for his composure in any situation. She also thought he was ‘cool.’ Saint-14 had a game in mind when he planned to attack the Garden – one that he wasn’t willing to share with the rest of the team at all.

He would task Shin to hunt for traces of something or _someone_ while they scouted and fought against the Vex that lay in the Heart of the Garden. He was difficult to convince, at first, for Shin wanted nothing to do with being a Guardian and working in fireteams, but Saint was desperate for a man of his skill-level and so offered to pay him for his services. Shin didn’t give in so easily, however. It wasn’t as simple as just offering a small bribe to get Shin to help in something so… _heroic._

He had spent so much time in his unnatural life chasing after the people who would hurt him, hunting the people who dare sway to the wrong side that his skills were unmatched, but he didn’t use them upon request. He would need his own purpose for it.

Saint _gave_ him that purpose.

With the team split evenly between the three classes, Saint was convinced they could not fail in hitting the Vex where it hurt. But while the team split between the classes was an advantage, Saint’s mind being split between his main mission and his cover-up mission was not and his dishonesty with his team would surely be their downfall in their venture.

But Saint couldn’t let them know his deepest, darkest secret – something he had hidden away in the back of his memories for decades.

It brought him so much shame that he failed at one task that he was given. It brought him so much guilt that he could never let it go. It taunted him for all those years following. It changed him. it made him want to chase the Vex. To chase them down until none remained, until they could mount no comeback, until he had recovered all their shared memories.

He would not stop.

He would not rest.

But it did not mean that he would share his experiences, even if it would be the difference between the team surviving and the team failing. He had bound himself to his failing and it would not come undone while he was alone with his secret, but no matter who tried to talk sense into him, Saint would not have it.

The Titan Orders would come to him about his obsession and he would brush them off. Zavala would warn him against his mind, and he would simply ignore him. Ikora even tried to comfort him after an exhausted outrage turned fruitless and he would push her away.

Saint was blinded by his obsession at every corner. He was deafened by the calls of Guardians begging him to drop his pain, to let it go.

But he clung on so tightly to the rope of disdain that it burnt him, not realising that letting go would make it stop.

He just needed to let go.


	2. Too Many Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the team assembled, it becomes apparent that not everyone is focussed on the task at hand, forming a splinter right between them, but when it's brought to the attention of Araeya and Kallori, questions must be asked to find out whether this mission was doomed from the start. For Skivay, curiosity gets the better of her - and it won't be the first time

On the dismal morning of take-off, Saint had assembled his team in the Hangar. He wasn’t one for motivational speeches, but he wanted to make sure his team was best equipped for the task ahead of them.

As far as Araeya, Kallori, Skivay and Asher were concerned, the team were there as an attack on the Vex to reduce the forces capable of mounting a response for the Guardians. They were there to attempt to further research into the Vex. They were there to provide support for the team.

Meanwhile Shin and Saint had a different agenda on their plates as they were investigating Saint’s failure. The only difference between the two of them is that Saint knew what he was looking for, whereas Shin knew only roughly what Saint was after since their meet several weeks ago.

Saint needed to investigate the Vex and their Minds to try and find any trace of evidence to his failure that would let him rectify it – if there was anything at all.

Saint, even with all his wisdom in combat, just couldn’t see the danger that he was putting the rest of his team in.

With too many agendas on different people’s minds in the same task, a splinter is likely to form, but with Saint’s entire life’s work on the line, he was focussed on only one matter at hand.

“Do you understand that your progress is paramount while we are in the Garden? Leave no stone unturned or you do not get your prize,” Saint whispered to Shin, careful to remind him of his own endgame as well as his hired task.

Shin nodded. “Anything I find will be reported to you until we have all the pieces of the puzzle, huh.”

“This puzzle will be my life’s work. Do not fail me.” Saint was clever with his tone, making sure that Malphur knew what was at stake should he not succeed. It made Shin uneasy as, surely a Titan of his stature would be more nurturing than he appeared to be.

Nevertheless, Shin would do as he was hired for as he had a reputation to uphold and a greater task at hand – not even the Vex could hold him back.

Saint slapped Asher on the back as he brushed past him to project to the rest of the team, knocking him forward as he knelt looking through his backpack.

“Today,” he bellowed across the Hangar, “today we change history. The Black Garden has forever been a thorn in our side, the Vex mocking us from behind closed doors. Today, we change that. We shall march in uninvited and burn their house down, just as Rasputin tried to do to us. That was an indication that we are unstoppable, and I want to see that same ferocity inside those gates!” Saint-14 paused for a moment to study his fireteam and then smiled underneath his helm. “I see a bright future ahead of us if we succeed here, today!” Saint knew that he was lying to his team, but he had bigger fish to fry.

Asher stepped forward with a handful of notes and Saint stepped aside to give him the centre stage. He cleared his throat.

“Venus harbours a Vex gate that can be used to go in and out of the Black Garden. It is the one closest to the centre and where we shall tear them limb from limb. Here are the plans and tactics for getting inside: upon landing, I, Araeya and Malphur shall push forward towards the gate and begin our work keying in the correct frequency. Saint-14 shall hold the fort from the entrance to the cave. Kallori shall be our flank should anything unexpected pass through and Skivay shall cover us while we work. I estimate this to take no longer than an hour – two, tops.”

Asher hastily stepped down having not looked up from his papers even once – he knew that if he looked up, he would notice Shin staring at his arm, and he wasn’t prepared to deal with that kind of attention. He was not one for public speaking, but he trusted Saint with his life and that gave him enough courage to speak.

Araeya looked at Kallori.

“Are you going to be okay?” she asked, quietly.

“Flanking? Piece of piss,” Kallori chuckled.

Skivay didn’t share the Hunter and the Warlock’s enthusiasm. In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that Saint-14 was her hero and mentor, she would be tempted to back out from the mission. She wasn’t best equipped for dealing with Vex – she loathed them and hated the sight of them and would do her best to avoid them at all costs.

“Why am I doing the covering?” she asked, making sure she wasn’t heard by anyone else. Araeya looked to her and saw how worried she seemed.

“Saint is the big man who will be doing the bulk of the protecting. Kallori is nimble enough to flank any enemies who try anything and Shin, Asher and I are most knowledgeable in Vex tech so we can work on the gate. He obviously trusts you to look after us!”

Skivay smiled. She would always go to Araeya for advice – she was the best at giving it.

They were interrupted by Shin appearing behind them unexpectedly. “Ready for trouble?” he asked in a sly tone. The three Guardians nodded excitedly, but Shin was only paying attention to Kallori who had picked up on his gaze, making her uncomfortable. “I am!” and he slapped Araeya and Skivay on the back at the same time, eyes fixated on Kallori.

Kallori watched him walk towards his ship in the docking bay before turning to the other two.

“What’s his problem?” she asked, but she could see she was wasting her breath because she took one look at Araeya and her starry-eyed gaze towards Shin and knew she wasn’t going to get a viable answer.

“I don’t see a problem with him,” Skivay answered in place. Kallori merely sighed at the prospect of having Araeya distracted by another Hunter.

Saint-14 clapped his hands. “If we’re all done being social… Let’s move out!” and he boarded his ship.

Everyone else scrambled to their ships and left in single-file right behind Saint-14, Skivay slightly behind as she panicked, trying to appear cool in front of her mentor, but became frenzied.

En route to the Ishtar Sink, Skivay’s inner curiosity got the better of her.

“So, Saint,” she began, nervously, “what got you so interested in the Vex?”

Silence.

“They just seem to be robots fighting because their core Mind tells them to. Can’t you just find the core Mind? We don’t have to do all of this, surely?”

Asher rolled his eyes.

“Young lady, you have no idea of what the Vex can do – or more appropriately – _how they work_ ,” he interrupted. Saint rubbed his forehead.

“Questions like these are not worth the answers they lead to. You must refrain from asking them,” he said bluntly and Skivay sank in her seat, ashamed of her actions. Kallori and Araeya could tell by her deafening silence that she started to feel guilty, so they decided to tune in and try to get the answers for her.

“Why the Vex and not the Fallen, for example?” Kallori asked, but before anyone could answer, Shin chimed in.

“Could ask you the same question but instead – why Guardians and not the Vex?”

Kallori was taken aback by Shin’s question, so she interrogated him.

“Sorry, I didn’t realise I wasn’t killing enough _Guardians_ ,” she said sarcastically. “I’ll try harder next time.”

“Oh, please do…”

“What’s your problem?”

Shin took a moment to respond. “Could ask you the same question.”

Kallori sighed in defeat. She, too, would not get the answers she wants. Araeya thought that she would have a go.

“Saint, what got you interested in the Vex? Do you see something in them?”

To this, Saint responded. “I see my failures in them…”

This took them all by surprise, so Araeya pushed for a deeper truth. “What happened?”

“The same thing that will happen to you if you don’t stop questioning my motives…”

With questions exhausted, the rest of the journey happened in silence, Araeya, Kallori and Skivay in defeat. Saint was all too dishonest with them and so they needed to find out what had him obsessing over the Vex in the same fashion that had Osiris obsessing over the Hive.


	3. No Help Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Saint remembers the day of his failure, the feelings still raw and the team are unsure as to why he remains so secretive. Jobs assigned and work underway to infiltrate the Black Garden, all seems to be going well until Saint finds that Skivay has abandoned her post and Araeya becomes aware of Shin's shifty presence

It was when the Hive has pushed forward to Mercury, home of the Infinite Forest, that Osiris had made the decision to shut their operation down. He had only planned to do it on his own and, no matter how many times Saint begged him not to go, Osiris was adamant that it was in the best interest of the City that he do so.

Saint-14 worked tirelessly to prove his point about the Infinite Forest being a place where Guardians go to die at the hands of the Vex.

“The Hive are a greater matter, Saint,” Osiris would say. “If they get their claws on Vex tech and merge it with their magic, it will be the end of the world as we know it.”

They would argue back and forth with each other for days until the time came and Osiris left for Mercury while Saint was out on a scouting mission with Asher on Venus, scouring the Vex Minds out there. He returned later that day to see Osiris’ station completely cleared out – his plans absent.

This worried Saint in a way he’d never experienced before, and he didn’t take a breath before darting for his ship and making a b-line for Mercury.

His mind reeled a thousand miles a minute as he dreaded what he would find on Mercury. Was Osiris dead already? Was he lost? Alive? He tried the comms as many times as he could, frantically switching between frequencies until he heard Sagira talking to Osiris.

“Sagira?!” Saint shouted over the comms. No answer. “Sagira!”

Saint tried and tried again, but Sagira could not hear him. He listened to their conversation as he landed at the entrance to the Infinite Forest.

“Osiris, I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Sagira said, warning Osiris.

“You worry too much, Sagira. I shall be fine.”

“If you tamper with that, you’ll lock us in this timeline forever. I won’t be able to get us back – if we fail and the Hive get what they want, we won’t be able to chase them back out, or warn the City.”

Saint had heard enough, and he charged through the gate, mowing down anything that stood in his way, running faster than the Titan had ever run before. He could still hear the comm unit crackling away as he pushed forward, praying that every corridor he ventured through he would see Osiris on the other side waiting for him.

_How could he have been so foolish… Time was the Devil…_

Asher broke Saint from his thoughts as they landed on Venus, awaiting their instructions. He cleared his throat.

“You know your jobs! Araeya, Asher and Shin – get to the gate and start working on it. Kallori and Skivay, go with them and repel enemy forces, whatever they are. I shall hold down the fort until given the all-clear.”

Everyone acknowledged their tasks and made headway towards their locations, all except for Shin who delayed his response and hung back with Saint for a moment.

“You seemed…distracted,” he pointed out, carefully.

Saint shook his head. “It was nothing. Just lost in thought.”

Shin didn’t believe him. “It’s that Osiris, isn’t it? He’s in your head again.”

“He has never left.” Saint’s voice was faint – almost weak with loss. He paused for a second and then shook his head as if shaking his thoughts away. “See to it that your job is done, and we shall have none of this again, Malphur, but be discrete as always.”

Shin acknowledged Saint’s request and pressed forward to catch up with the others who had already made their way to the Vex gate. He couldn’t care less about the job he was hired for. In fact, if it weren’t for the payment on the other side, he wouldn’t have even considered it, but the payoff for him would be huge and Saint was going to hand it to him on a silver platter.

All he had to do was give Saint what he wanted.

At the gate, Araeya and Asher had already denoted that the way through was in need of a Vex already keyed in via the correct frequency and Kallori was on a ledge to the side, hoping to catch her eye on one, until Shin had an idea.

“Could you not key your own arm to the correct frequency?” he asked, pointing at Asher’s Vex arm.

Asher scoffed. “You _must_ be joking! That would accelerate the rate at which this infliction infects my body – there is still much more work to be done and I’m not about to leave that to these…imbeciles!”

“But… Didn’t you inflict that on yourself, Asher? Surely you knew of the consequences with all your extensive research?” Araeya asked, kneeling next to the portal, studying his arm.

Asher pulled it away from her sightline. “I‘ve got it under control, you little miscreant!” he shouted, trying to prove a point long since forgotten – especially since rumours are more powerful than the truth.

Araeya smirked as she got back to examining the portal and Asher sighed. “Fine,” he huffed, and Shin laughed.

Gunfire could be heard in the distance as Saint-14 had encountered some Fallen trying to scavenge parts from the Vex. Kallori had her sniper trained on a group of them patrolling out in the distance, keeping an eye on them should they decide to make a move. This pushed Asher, Araeya and Shin to work a bit quicker but remain intricate in their work.

After half an hour, Saint ran down the track holding back more Fallen that had decided to attack.

“Where is the other Titan?!” he bellowed, running low on breath.

Araeya tuned into Skivay’s comms. “Skiy? Where are you? You’re supposed to be covering our backs while we work on this – we’re stretched thin, here…”

Skivay immediately responded. “I’m on my way!”

This angered Saint-14 and he snatched Araeya’s comm unit and shouted down the mic. “What do you mean you are on your way?! You should already be here!”

“I’ll explain when I get there!”

Saint did not take kindly to people who didn’t follow orders to the dot and despised tardiness. He was not a kind man when it came to missions. People would despise Shaxx for the way he spoke to them in the Crucible – bellowing orders in their comm units – but at least outside the Crucible, he was nice to talk to. Saint was not like Shaxx. He was too focussed on his obsessions to have time to talk to anyone if they weren’t part of his decade-long crusade to rectify his wrongs. In fact, he became nasty if his work was somehow interrupted by anyone.

He was not a nice person, but if he could somehow make up for his greatest mistake, then it was possible that all that could change. But it had to go right. If it isn’t possible, then may the Traveler have mercy on the people who get involved with him.

Loss can be one of the most powerful emotions after it has progressed unchecked.

Araeya and Shin had Asher’s arm wired into the Vex portal just as Skivay arrived and Saint turned to her, heat radiating off him as he steamed with anger.

“I told you to cover them and yet, you were not here! You had better have a good explanation for this…” Saint clenched his fists, Void energy swirling around them. This made Skivay nervous.

“I… There were some Vex just a couple of clicks from the portal and I overheard Asher needing a frequency and Shin needing a husk-”

“ _Overheard?”_ Saint interrupted, edging closer to Skivay. “You mean, you were eavesdropping? What exactly did you hear?”

“A-Asher needed a frequency for the gate. He and Araeya were having that conversation earlier. In the H-Hangar, you were t-talking to Shin about investigating the Vex…”

Saint-14 shivered with anger and got up in Skivay’s face. “So? What did you do?”

“I went to retrieve a husk, but you called me back before I could get one…”

Saint grabbed Skivay by the shoulders, clutching them tightly in his fists, and pulled her in close. “You mean you abandoned your post?” he lowered his voice into a tense whisper. He let go and turned away. Her feet remained on the ground… _this time._ “Don’t even _think_ about doing it again.”

Skivay’s postured dropped as she trundled behind the Exo towards the gate where Araeya and Asher had rewired the portal for them to jump through.

As Kallori jumped down from her post, Shin glared at her and she felt the back of her head burning from his stares. She turned to look at him and he did nothing to hide his intentions towards her, and so she shuffled forward to be next to Araeya.

“How can you not see it?”

“What? Shin? Oh yeah, I know he’s there. It’s hard not to acknowledge him, really…” Araeya’s voice almost sounded dreamy. She knew Araeya liked Shin for his skills and prowess, but it was time she opened her eyes.

Kallori shook her head. “No, no, no. I mean, can’t you see he’s after something? He’s not here just to help Saint. He has something else in mind…”

Araeya turned to see Shin keeping a keen eye on Kallori, his hand half-ready on his holster, trembling with anticipation.

“Actually, yeah…”


	4. Agendas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inside the Garden, tensions rise and feelings change when Skivay angers her mentor once again and Araeya tries to find out what Shin Malphur really wants with the team but gets caught in the act, forcing Shin to play his cards closer to his chest

Inside the Garden, the atmosphere, both physically and emotionally, had changed dramatically.

Skivay had lightened up after her upset with Saint as she was so taken aback by her surroundings – her fascination grew into curiosity. Shin had briefly taken his eye off Kallori as he began equipping and engaging his scanner to begin his hunt for Saint’s Vex. Asher reached into his backpack in search of his research books as this was his first encounter with the Black Garden in person and wanted to make sure that he had the best notes going forward. Araeya took a deep breath in and relaxed in the calming air, despite the circumstances. Kallori was unmoved by her surroundings, however; she was best at maintaining composure so to outwit her enemies.

Saint became weak at the knees as he saw the wonder that was the Black Garden. He had believed for so long that the Vex could not create – that they could only destroy – but in seeing their vast creation, he questioned everything he had dedicated his life to.

But no. He must remain focussed. He is here for one thing and one thing only and nothing could change his mind.

Walking through the Garden, Asher remained at Saint’s side up front and continued reading from his books while Araeya and Kallori trundled behind, Skivay in tow, Shin at the back, scheming.

“By my calculations,” Asher began, “the Heart of the Black Garden should only be a couple of miles across the Radiolarian Lake and past the Radiolarian Fjord. I’ve heard only rumours of the ‘Mind over the Lake.’ They say it’s a giant Cyclops that thinks like a real human!”

Saint turned to look at Asher as he continued forward, his head buried in his book. “How can that be possible? The Vex are incapable of thinking like humans…”

“Not this one. No-one knows why, but everyone who has ever studied this Mind has said without a doubt that it differs from the rest,” Asher replied, nose still in his book.

Saint pondered this thought. _A Vex Mind with the ability to think like a human…_

Shin interrupted the squad in their thoughts. “I need to do an ammo search,” he said plainly.

Saint nodded. “I need to consult with Asher about some of our research aspects. Kill anything that moves and bring any abstract Vex husks back here on your way.”

Shin immediately shuffled off to a cliffside, constantly looking over his shoulder, where he hid behind a tree and Araeya decided she was going to find out what made him so shifty, leaving Kallori and Skivay to explore their surroundings, which brought more harm than good in the end.

Crouching, Shin tuned into a second comm unit he had hiding in his belt and Araeya sat only a few metres away – close enough to hear at least half of the conversation.

“Yeah… I know… I can only do so much… I have to give the Titan what he wants, or he’ll never let me near the Warlock… I’m working as best I can… She will be dealt with soon enough… Yes sir…”

Araeya watched as Shin slumped himself next to a rock in exasperation, studying his hand cannon as he shaped it with his hands. _The Warlock?_ She had gathered he didn’t mean Asher, so what did he want with Kallori?

She couldn’t believe that her Hunter idol was out on a man-hunt – that he had joined their Raid crusade only to be in the same place as his real target. How could Saint have allowed this? Or, a better question – was Saint a _part_ of this?

She needed to tell Kallori.

As Araeya stood up from crouching nearby, she slipped and her foot caught on a rock, knocking stones loose, drawing attention to herself as they clattered across the ground and into the stream.

Shin stood up in haste to see what disturbed his environment and caught Araeya as she bolted away. He pounded his fist against the tree stump as he realised his plan may have been compromised – he needed to try and convince Araeya that she misunderstood by worming his way into her head.

Not too far out from where Asher and Saint had made their base, Kallori and Skivay wandered the environment around them, shooting down Vex as they appeared before them.

“Do you think Saint has a problem with me?” Skivay asked as she kicked a Vex head out the way.

Kallori sighed. “I know you really want to impress him, but perhaps you’d be better off just doing what he says. I think he would appreciate that more…”

“I just want him to notice me. I want to by his side like Araeya was at Cayde’s side. I want to be there at the end…”

Kallori placed a hand on Skivay’s shoulder and turned her around to look at her. “He’s too preoccupied by something he can’t move on from. He won’t see you all the while he’s stuck in the past. Hopefully, this will give him what he’s after and we can all move forward.” She smiled as she rarely does, and it made Skivay feel much better.

Looking over the bank of the Radiolarian Lake, Skivay could see Vex gathering in groups to observe their new visitors, although none were engaging.

At least, not until a unique Vex approached the Titan. This Vex was different. Its structure differed from the rest of the Vex in the Garden. It seemed…prehistoric in comparison.

She attacked it without a second thought and drained the Radiolaria from its entirety, breaking its husk apart. Kallori hung back and watched the Vex from the other side of the Lake vanish one by one, as if backing away in horror at the crime that had just been committed.

“I’ll bring this back to Saint and see if it’s one of the things he was looking for,” Skivay asserted.

Kallori eyed her with worry. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? I feel like that Vex was perhaps a decoy for something…” She kept looking over at the other side of the Lake where the other Vex once were and then back to the ancient husk.

“It’ll be fine, I’m sure.”

With that, the two trundled back towards where Saint and Asher were still revising their notes and Araeya came back shortly after, still looking over her shoulder rather worried.

Skivay dumped the Vex husk next to Saint and kicked it closer, making him jump and drawing his attention to its unique form and Saint gasped.

“This Vex! I have seen only a few like it…back… _then._ ” He examined it closer and Asher took more notes. “Wait,” he said as he sat back on his ankles. “I don’t understand – where’s the Radiolaria?”

“I drained it so you could examine it without hurting yourself,” Skivay said unafraid by Saint’s intense gaze as he glared at her in disgust.

“No, no, no, no I need the fluid! I need to date it! It has the information I need! Why would you make an effort to drain the Radiolaria from the husk so that none remain? Are you sabotaging me?”

Skivay dropping in posture and her confidence instantly disappeared. “I- Sabotage how? I’m here to help you…”

“Well you might want to start proving that soon, or you could find yourself on the wrong side of this gate…”

Asher tutted as Skivay walked away, leaving the two to continue examining the Vex husk and she returned to Kallori and Araeya.

“Kal, you were right, something is _really_ off with Shin Malphur,” Araeya began.

“I told you! The guy’s really shifty and I don’t know what his problem is.”

“I do…” Araeya looked over her shoulder again to see if Malphur was close by. “He’s here for someone…”

“ _Someone?_ That doesn’t seem right. He’s after something, but I didn’t think it’d be a person…” Kallori folded her arms, disbelieving Araeya’s words.

“Yeah and it’s… It’s you…”

Kallori sat back on the rock she was perched on, her arms dropping to her sides.

“Not a chance. I mean, what have _I_ done to attract _his_ attention?”

Araeya sighed. “I don’t know, but he was talking to someone on a separate comm network, so I guess he’s doing someone’s work? I don’t know, Kallori, but I would watch your back. As soon as he’s done with us in the Garden, he won’t be leaving without you.”

“Nah. I’ll be fine. You must have misunderstood him. There’s no way he’s after me,” Kallori laughed.

Araeya sighed and got up but a hand grabbed her by her arm and pulled her away. Shin stared her down as he pulled her in close.

“What did you hear?” he asked, keeping his voice low.

“Enough to know that you’re up to no good,” Araeya responded, unafraid.

Shin nodded in annoyance – he was losing his temper. “You could cost me an awful lot by knowing what you do, you know? I should end you right here, right now…” He reached for his gun in his holster, but Araeya’s gaze never left his own.

“And how would _that_ look?”

Without warning, Shin suddenly relaxed his grip on her and pushed her away and she grunted against his force. “You’re not worth my effort right now. I’ll get to you when the time is right.”

Before Araeya turned away, she looked Shin dead in the eyes. “You were my idol,” she began. “You were a Hunter I looked up to – righteous. What happened to you?”

Shin averted his eyes so that she couldn’t see them anymore. “You wouldn’t understand…”

“No. I guess I wouldn’t,” Araeya scoffed. “How could someone like me understand what turned you into a manhunter, let alone what turned you against everything you believe in?” Her sarcasm rang through Shin’s mind like bells.

“No-one can…”

Araeya let out a short sharp laugh. “I’m willing to bet I can…” she said as she walked back towards the rest of the team.

Shin angrily fired a warning shot by her feet, and she didn’t flinch. He knew, then, that this Hunter had been through the works – through hell and back. He wasn’t going to let her get away so easily. When this was over and he had the Warlock in his grasp, he would come for her, next. He needed to know where she’d been to know his state of mind – how she stayed whole…

He incoherently shouted at her from behind.

Saint called for everyone to begin their trek back through the Garden, passing through the Radiolarian Lake with care, but not without Shin studying the traces in the Radiolaria and feeding Saint the news, maintaining his cover.

“No traces of a memory you’re looking for.”

Saint huffed, but Asher geared him on towards their goal of taking down the ‘human-thinking’ Mind of the Black Garden, all the while he’d begun clutching at his arm and his chest as something began to feel incredibly off.

Saint just couldn’t stop thinking about what he could have done differently back then.


	5. Prevailing Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the team near the Heart of the Black Garden, Saint remembers more of what happened on the day of his greatest failure, interrupted by Asher's sheer excitement in coming close to the Mind. Shin Malphur has one more attempt at trying to convince Araeya that his job isn't as bad as it seems, but he wasn't ready for the resistance she gave, putting him in an even more awkward position than before

He ran through every corridor that was open to him, still listening to the comms as Sagira desperately tried to get Osiris to rethink his plan.

“Osiris, please. For once in your dumb life will you just listen to me?!”

“I will not have this conversation, again, Sagira. My mind is made up and I will stop the Hive from reaching the Root Mind if it’s the last thing I do in this forsaken world.”

_It won’t be last thing you do, I swear it, Osiris._

“Osiris!” Saint shouted over the comms. It was like peering through one-way glass where he could see and hear everything, but they couldn’t see him. The glass was unbreakable, and he couldn’t get to Osiris, no matter how hard he tried.

No. It wasn’t glass. It was a prison cell – inescapable. A front row seat to the very fate he’d worked so hard to avoid.

“Osiris!”

Saint kept running through time. He would not stop until he had Osiris back home.

“Osiris, if there’s nothing I can do to convince you not to do this, then can I at least suggest some backup? I don’t want you doing this alone…”

Osiris smiled sweetly at Sagira. He knew that, deep down, she cared about him. She just wasn’t that good at showing it with her ego in the way. “No-one is here, Sagira. No-one is coming. It’s just you and me against the Hive. We can do it.”

_I’m here! I’m coming!_

Sagira couldn’t tell if Osiris’ optimism was a ploy to throw her of his scent of fear or whether he was genuinely that sure of himself. In fact, she almost didn’t care.

“Osiris! I can help!” Saint shouted through time still frantically trying to get their attention but simply could not work out how he could hear them, but they couldn’t hear him.

“Osiris, please-”

“No more, Sagira. I know what I must do.”

“Osiris! No!”

Time stopped. No more seconds on the clock, no more second chances. It was too late.

Saint watched in horror as he was locked out of the very timeline that he needed to save Osiris from the Hive in the Infinite Forest. He was cut off from the very man he needed in his life and there was nothing he could do about it.

_No. Not nothing…_

Saint researched for years trying to find a way inside the Infinite Forest timeline where he lost Osiris. It then took almost the same amount of time to reach him – too long. Too late.

“Saint! Look upon the Fjord! The Mind resides only a matter of miles from here! We are close…” Asher interrupted Saint’s thoughts to alert him that they were close.

He shook his head to focus on what he was doing. “What do we know about its residence?”

“Not a lot. It can teleport to any point within the Fjord’s range by travelling through an integrated timestream specifically attuned to its thoughts. We would have to be very coordinated if we are going to get around it. The Mind over the Lake… The fascination grows evermore!”

“If it thinks like a human, then surely it has the same imperfections as a human mind? It cannot think in calculations as cleanly – it would have to make mistakes…”

Asher’s eyes lit up for the first time in weeks. “Yes! It must! I shall have to record this…”

While Asher began digging about his bags, wincing as he did so, grinning through the pain, the rest of the team grouped up and sat on the rocks beside the Fjord and watched as Vex appeared in groups on the opposing side as they had done by the Lake. Neither Kallori nor Skivay had worked out why they didn’t attack, and at this point, they didn’t care.

Araeya was about to sit down with them, when she was pulled aside by Shin again, his grip more meaningful.

“Did you tell her?” he asked in a low whisper.

“Of course I did! You can’t seriously think that I wouldn’t tell my own girlfriend that she is wanted by an esteemed manhunter, would you?” Araeya said, disgusted.

“What did she say?”

“Why do you care?”

Shin sighed. “I need this, okay?”

Araeya tried to walk away – she was in no mood to deal with Malphur’s shit. As she brushed his hand off her arm, he grabbed her tighter with both hands. “No, you don’t get to just walk away from me.”

“I think I do,” she grunted, trying to fight him off. “Why do you get to decide whose life is worth more, anyway?”

Shin sighed again. “I don’t.”

“Then what happens when you take her from me, huh? Do you get to keep your life while she loses hers?” This time, Araeya wasn’t fighting to get away from Shin – she was fighting to get closer. She wanted to get up in his face to squeeze every piece of information from him, making him uncomfortable.

“That’s not…it…” Shin couldn’t hold his own thoughts but maintained his grip on the Hunter as she fought him.

“I think it is. Anything to stop a stain on reputation, huh? Even if it means getting someone else’s blood on your hands?” Araeya was mere millimetres from Shin’s face and he could feel her heated breath on his face, burning with her intense edge.

Taking a moment to collect his thoughts, he pushed against Araeya to move her away from his face. “There’s so much more to it than that and you know it…”

“Maybe I do. But maybe I’m just not willing to accept that as an excuse to be a murderous asshole…” Araeya stopped pushing against Shin and shook her head in despair at him. “The mighty really have fallen, haven’t they? Well, if it makes you feel that much better, she didn’t believe me, anyway.” she shrugged him off her with force and walked away, hand half on her Outbreak Perfected in case he attempted to go after her.

“I’m not done with you, yet!”

_I know…_

Spark – Kallori’s Ghost – watched as Araeya stormed back towards the rocks while Araeya’s Ghost – Twink – had allowed him to listen in on Shin and Araeya’s conversation so that he was at least aware of the danger to his Guardian.

Needless to say, he was most unimpressed by the way that Kallori handled the news from Araeya. Now, it was his turn to try and convince her to take more caution during this mission.

He booped the side of her shoulder to get her attention. Spark and Kallori had an estranged relationship that often made it awkward for them to communicate properly.

She turned to look at him, a slight scowl spread across her face at the intrusion.

“What is it, Spark?” she asked, annoyed.

“You thought Shin Malphur was shifty, right?”

“Yeah…”

“Araeya confirmed it for you, didn’t she?”

“Yes, Spark, just cut to the chase.” Kallori was losing her patience.

He sighed deeply, preparing for resistance. “I can confirm it, too. He’s after you.”

Kallori laughed. “Ha! Oh, you guys are funny with all your pranks. Is this a team effort now, as well? Yeah, I’ve done nothing to warrant a manhunt for me, so I think just think he’s after whatever Saint wants and that’s why he’s here.”

“Then why are you so worried about him staring at you?” If Spark could have folded his arms and smirked, he would have done.

“He’s creepy, alright. I don’t like guys staring at me, anyway.” Kallori turned away. She wasn’t so sure of herself, anymore. At this point, she just prayed that Saint would get whatever he came for and they could leave this mess behind – it was far too cryptic and mysterious for her liking. She was only there to shoot anything that moves.

Spark gave up. He couldn’t save his Guardian if his Guardian wouldn’t take caution when it was most important. What would he do with her?


	6. A Change in Detriment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The symptoms of Asher's infliction worsen as the team nears the Heart and Skivay makes one last mistake that pushes Saint past his last shred of patience. But first, he needs to save her life

As Asher got up off the floor, he hunched over in pain and he was still clutching at his chest, breathless.

“Asher?” Saint grew concerned for his fellow Vex scientist.

“I’m fine. Nothing but the typical effects of an infliction. I will be just fine. We must press forward, now,” Asher responded, brushing away Saint’s compassionate hand on his shoulder. Saint nodded.

“Team,” he began, standing up tall to address his fireteam. “We are close to our target. Now is not the time for slip-ups or mistakes. We must always communicate. Shin Malphur will continue to examine our kills for information and report to Asher or myself – leave him be. Press on!”

The closer that Saint got to the Heart of the Black Garden, the more he felt something inside his head almost calling him.

With a clattering of guns and feet, the six Guardians began to make their ways across the Radiolarian Fjord, the Vex watching from afar.

They cocked their heads in curiosity as they observed the Guardians, calculating every possible outcome from their new visitors, yet they did not engage when they stumbled upon an outcome that they favoured. Something stopped them in their tracks, telling them: _leave them be._

They obeyed a higher order.

The Guardians spent hours taking down Vex they didn’t recognise, Shin inspecting every single one of them to find nothing but evidence to suggest they were from the future – a timeline that Saint was not interested in. He wanted Vex from the past to retrace his steps. They climbed the mountains and rocks scattered across the region, gaining higher ground for observation of the area.

Skivay dawdled behind. She was too distracted by the surrounding environment in all its beauty to notice how much further the team were walking ahead of her, her Ghost concurrently distracted.

Skivay and Cynder were two of a kind. They were almost identical in personality – shy, but polite and ever-happy. They both enjoyed the simple things in their unnatural lives, and this made for a life much simpler to live than the way some other Guardians used to live. She was happy just to be on the same team as her mentor and hero – Saint-14 – and that’s why, despite her nervousness in being involved in a large operation, she didn’t take a second to reconsider. She said ‘yes’ without a moment’s hesitation and her heart skipped a beat when Saint requested her.

Little did she know that he only allowed her in the team because Araeya and Kallori had oversold her abilities. They had convinced him to allow her on the team by exaggerating her capabilities a little bit. They didn’t make her out to be a world’s hero, but they had told him that she always had her wits about her and that he ‘couldn’t go wrong with her on their team.’

So far, that was not working in their favour.

At the summit of the highest climb, Saint-14 took a deep breath in and smelt the air around him, Vex fresh. He knew he was close – he could hear it calling him closer like a siren growing ever-louder.

He had no luck with finding the Vex he needed, but he knew that, despite the losses, the Mind would be able to point him in the right direction. It had to.

Without warning, Asher collapsed onto one knee, grunted as he pressed against his chest – his heartrate had slowed and his whole chest had begun to ache. His breathing had become laboured and every breath he took became louder as he wheezed mechanical noises.

Saint fell at his side.

“Get off me, hero,” Asher said, pushing Saint away. “This happens all too often.”

“You have lost control of your infliction, haven’t you, Asher?” Araeya asked, accusingly.

“Nonsense, child! I could not allow such a thing.” He stood up and brushed himself off, huffing as he did so, scolding Araeya for her accusation. Saint glared at her, narrowing his eyes. “The Mind should reside directly below us from here,” he added, quickly changing the subject and pointing beyond the waterfalls at the back of the Fjord. “The Waterfalls of Eden…”

Saint quickly ushered everyone down the mountain, accounting for his fireteam members until he realised that he was a man down.

Halting everyone at the brink, he frantically searched for the missing Titan who had stopped climbing about halfway down to stop at a bush of flowers where she had knelt down and began examining them very closely, not paying attention to the group of Vex rapidly making their way towards her, their guns trained on her head and her Ghost. These Vex did not answer to the order stopping them from attacking.

With no time to think, Saint jumped down the side of the cliff and slid right into the Vex with his Perfect Paradox, annihilating them all before Skivay could turn around and comprehend the grave mistake she had just made.

As the dust settled, seven Vex were dead and Shin was already examining their husks, the rest of the team in tow. Saint stood up, panting out of breath and turned to Skivay, his fists clenched tight and fizzling with Void energy.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked, unusually calm at first.

Skivay didn’t want to answer. Whatever excuse she could come up with, it wouldn’t be enough to quell the beast building inside the Exo Titan before her. Instead, she remained silent and ashamed that she had allowed herself to drop her guard.

“What if I could not get to you in time? You could have died! What were you thinking?!”

Still Skivay said nothing. Anything she’d say would only make matters worse.

A tense moment hung in the air as Saint contemplated the event, the other Guardians waiting in anticipation at what the Exo would do. Eventually, Saint lashed out and punched the cliff wall just past Skivay’s head, leaving a Void crater in the side, her Ghost jumping out the way.

“I cannot deal with your incompetence any further! You have been nothing but a hinderance in this entire expedition and I simply won’t have it anymore!” he paused, his speech becoming breathless. “Did you know that your two friends over there recommended you to me? That you should _definitely_ be one to help? Did you know that you have not proven that even a sliver to me?” he looked at Skivay, but she could not return his gaze. She was too upset by her many mishaps. “You have disappointed me and your friends, there.”

Skivay looked just past Saint to see Araeya and Kallori stood in shock at what just happened, Kallori’s face awash with embarrassment. “I wanted nothing more than to impress you – to show you that I am worth your time…” she whispered, looking at the floor.

“Well you have only proven the opposite. Return to the gate and leave. I cannot trust you to not fail during our last mission, here. I want you gone, and I want you to know that you are not welcome near me again. You are no Titan in my eyes. Do you understand?”

Skivay nodded and Saint grabbed her by the shoulders, pushing her away so that she tripped and stumbled into Araeya.

“We’ll be back before you know it,” she reassured. “You can go back to ours and we’ll see you there.”

Skivay couldn’t look at her friends as Kallori patted her on the back, watching her walk past them in despair. Araeya held her head in her hands while Kallori turned back to see the hulking Titan in their faces, his body steaming in frustration.

“I don’t need an explanation for this. Just know that we are a man down because you wanted to play matchmaker. I hope you do your jobs better than your friend…”

Shin was still investigating the Vex husks as the team returned to their positions in pushing towards the Waterfalls of Eden, but if he was to report a finding to Saint that he believed he would desperately need, he would need to play a very fast game of ‘catch-up’ and hope to find the team before they engaged the Mind.

Shin _really_ hoped to get there in time.

He was bringing information that was about to change the mission from removing the Mind, to saving it.


	7. A Final Reminiscence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Saint endures one last grueling thought as old feelings bite and he remembers parting words that changed his life

Saint was decades lost in the Infinite Forest before he could find anything. He tracked Osiris’ last moves to the dot and Geppetto scanned every possible sighting just in case Osiris and Sagira got separated at any point.

Sagira wouldn’t leave Osiris – not after everything they had gone through up until now.

About 14 years into his search, Geppetto warned Saint of an oncoming approach of Vex from a future timeline and asked if it was wise to continue.

Without hesitation, Saint agreed and rushed into the corridor to greet the Vex that seemed to have formed a group surrounding something.

After hours of wondering when the Vex would stop coming, Saint ran out of ammo and resulted into summoning his Sentinel Shield to take down as many Vex as possible to save the Ghost laying in the middle of this timeline – Sagira.

Without any warning, the Vex stopped attacking and ceased all fire before disappearing into time, leaving Saint and Geppetto gawking at each other, confused.

Nonetheless, they had Sagira’s shell safe and in one piece, however she was not awake. Saint wasn’t even sure if she was alive, but Geppetto had decrypted a message left on her tracker:

_“Saint? Haha I know you’re here! I watched as you entered the Forest and knew you must be here for me. Let this be a warning that I have failed. I worked to stop the Hive in their tracks on their mission in espionage and sabotage toward the Vex – I cut off the timeline to stop it from escaping into our reality, but they have only grown stronger and created their own means of escaping. I dread to think of the damage they could do with all they know, now.”_

_“I have been a silly old man, Saint. You know that? I wanted you to hear this because I anticipated long ago that you would never find me in time. It was foretold in many simulations that I have seen. I shall send Sagira out to find you. I pray that she does.”_

_“Know that my time in this plane of existence is over, but of all the ventures I have had, the ones where you featured were the best. I wish nothing but the world for you, Saint. I have done all that I can in your name. It is up to you, now. Save the world like I always believed you can.”_

_“Don’t waste your life on and old man like myself. I am not worthy of you in this timeline.”_

_“Perhaps another?”_

Saint fell to his knees, removing his helmet and dropping it to the floor, realising that Osiris knew all along that he would come for him. He held Sagira’s Lightless shell in the palm of his hands and studied it through flooded eyes. “Osiris…” he whispered; his voice broken. “What have you done?”

Hope drained from his soul as he stared aimlessly at the shell in his hands – the last piece of Osiris he could hold.

Geppetto sighed as well. “Saint? I have a lock on Osiris’ last signal if you wish to continue…”

Saint’s head shot up to stare at his Ghost, his eyes lit up. No one need say anymore, and he held Sagira’s shell tighter as he picked himself off the floor, anxiously waiting for his Ghost to point him in the direction of the man he’d spent so long in search for.

It would be another 8 years before they finally reached Osiris’ signal which had begun rapidly decaying after those final 2 years.

It wasn’t what Saint had dreamed of, however, for before his very eyes, lay a mere shell of the Warlock he had dedicated his life to, spread across the floor. Saint couldn’t believe his eyes.

He fell beside Osiris and held his hand tightly in his own. He had been dead for some months before he got there.

For the first time in decades, Saint couldn’t feel anything. For the first time since his search for Osiris began, time stopped for him. It wasn’t draining away from him anymore. He wasn’t losing valuable seconds on theories and he wasn’t chasing after more time every day that went by where he didn’t recover anything. Time was never on his side, and now, it wasn’t anywhere.

Time stopped because there was none left.

He was too late.

Saint pressed Osiris’ hand against his forehead, cold to the touch and it shook him to his core.

He whispered something in Russian:

“Время это дьявол. В мире недостаточно времени, чтобы рассказать вам обо всем, что я чувствую. Сейчас совсем нет времени - оно прошло - и я потерял тебя, но ты не потерял меня. Я никуда не пойду без тебя...”

“Время может забрать наши тела, но оно не может взять наши духи.”

(“Time is the devil. There is not enough time in the world to tell you everything I feel. Now, there is no time at all - it's gone - and I have lost you, but you have not lost me. I'm not going anywhere without you...”)

(“Time can take our bodies, but it cannot take our spirits.”)

Carefully laying down Osiris’ hand, he looked up at Geppetto longingly through tearful eyes. “There has to be something we can do…” Saint got up to get closer to his Ghost who couldn’t look at him. “There’s another timeline where he’s alive, right? We cannot leave him like this – we must do something!”

Geppetto sighed. “Saint, I have been scanning since we arrived. I can’t find anything at all. It’s as if he was just wiped from existence. There’s nothing I can do…”

Saint shook his head in disbelief. “No, no, there has to be _something._ Anything! Please, Geppetto?”

“Saint, please…”

“No!” he moved closer to Geppetto so that she would see how desperate he was, but he had barely moved a couple of steps from Osiris’ body before it vanished completely from sight.

“Saint?”

“No, Geppetto! No excuses…”

“Saint? I…” she bobbed in the direction of where she watched Osiris’ body get carried away by time and Saint turned around.

The piercing silence echoed throughout the timeline and shattered his body as Saint couldn’t muster the strength to scream like he so badly craved. He wanted nothing more than to give Osiris a proper send off, to hold him one more time – just as he felt was most deserved. He was going to show the world what a hero looked like, carrying the Warlock out of the Infinite Hell in his arms.

He would be the Knight in Shining Armour.

And now he couldn’t. Everything he had worked towards had vanished before his eyes.

He never could recover the body.

He never brought home what was the legend that was Osiris and so sparked his very obsession with the Vex. He wanted to know how they thought, how their Minds work and why they do what they do, and maybe, just maybe, he could find a way to undo his mistake and bring Osiris back, not just for him, but for the good of the City.

People called him crazy – saying he’d had one too many reboots and that it was time to say goodbye to the heroic Exo that was, but he fought every day of his unnatural life to rectify his one life-changing mistake.

The Black Garden was the key to undoing that mistake and now that he was there, nothing would get in his way. Nothing would stop him. No-one could and Traveler help anyone that tried.

This was only a small step in his journey to redemption, but it was the biggest one he could ever make, and it was the key to the door that he’d been locked behind for so many years. Through it, he could mount the final steps into changing everything anyone believed in.

He only needed to hang on a little bit longer.

_Just a little longer, Osiris. I told you I’d never let you go…_


	8. The Root Cause

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the Heart of the Black Garden, anything can happen, but none of the team were ready for just how broad that aspect could be until it trapped them in the Fjord and used Asher to shock them all to the core. 5 Guardians went in, but in the end, only 2 would see it through

Saint was lost in thought as they entered the centre of the Fjord where the Mind over the Lake resided, and Shin had been trying to get his attention for some time.

The ground rumbled beneath them and Radiolaria shot up into the sky, surrounding the team and blocking their way back.

Asher yelled in pain and he collapsed once more. This time, he couldn’t move his arms to clutch his chest where the pain was at its strongest. He didn’t have the strength to pick himself up off the floor. This time, no-one rushed to his side.

Shin was still desperately trying to get Saint’s attention.

“Saint, sir…”

“Not now, Shin.”

“No, you need to hear this.”

“Not right now.”

“Saint!”

As Saint turned to look at Shin in anger, the giant Cyclops – the boss of the Black Garden – spawned before them, towering above, shadowing them all. It drew Saint’s attention immediately and Asher gasped in pained excitement.

“Saint,” Shin tried again.

“Can’t you see?! That’s…” Saint’s voice trailed off as he looked at the Cyclops.

“All the Vex I examined from that day – they all pointed to that Cyclops. That Cyclops knows where Osiris is!”

“I know…” Saint walked forwards to get closer to the Cyclops that had since turned its attention on him, Shin looking evermore confused. “You were the one calling me here, weren’t you?”

Araeya and Kallori exchanged shocked looks at one another as they realised that their entire mission in the Black Garden was to find Osiris. _That_ was Saint’s failure and _that_ was why he was so Vex-obsessed. They had heard only rumours of Osiris’ demise, but they had no idea how deep-rooted Saint was involved with it.

The Cyclops turned to Asher and he screamed. “It’s… It’s c-communicating! Agh, my arm!” With no, warning, the Cyclops beamed a light to Asher’s head and his eyes disappeared. His voice became demonic under the influence of the boss. “Saint-14, I have been calling you for decades. I pointed you in the direction of Shin Malphur to aid you. I told you about the Hunter and her partner and so convinced you that Araeya should be on your team, therefore drawing your attention to the rogue Warlock. The rest, you came up with on your own.”

Saint stared in horror at Asher. “But why?”

Asher looked at the Cyclops and then back at Saint, his voice still demonic, mechanical. “Because you and I know something that the rest don’t.”

“And what is that?”

“Время это дьявол _.”_

Saint’s knees became weak at the sound of a phrase he had said only to one other person in his life – the only other person who would truly understand what it meant. His breath was stolen from him and he stumbled on the spot, half-confused. After a moment’s deliberation, he found his words.

“ _Osiris?”_

The whole team behind him became breathless at their discovery – an impossible outcome.

With a demonic shriek, Asher gained control of his body once more, but the Cyclops continued to communicate with him.

“No! You can’t! I haven’t finished my research!”

“Asher, what is it saying?” Araeya asked, nervously.

“My… My infliction – it has spread to my organs and Dendron says this is my end. The end of my _Vex Cycle…_ ”

“Dendron?”

“That’s the Root Mind,” Saint added. “Osiris always said it was impossible to control…”

“Asher…?” Araeya grew in concern as she saw Asher’s Awoken colour drain from his expressionless face as he gasped for air. Before long, Asher had become nothing but a hollow shell of the Warlock he was before, collapsing on the floor in a heap of nothing, his Vex arm the only thing left.

The team could see where the infliction had turned his lungs to metal, his heart failing.

_His Vex Cycle?_

Much as he disliked admitting his mistakes, Asher had indeed lost control of his self-inflicted Vex experiment. He knew from day one that it would inevitably kill him, but he wanted to live life as if it wouldn’t. Dendron could sense the Vex mechanics that were eating away at Asher’s insides and used it to harness the ability to contact the rest of the team. Unfortunately, it only vastly accelerated Asher’s death.

It was a necessary sacrifice.

Shin had stopped paying attention to the goings on around them and made his way into a strike position, his gun pointed at Kallori. He had given Saint _exactly_ what he wanted and now, he was leaving with his payment.

Araeya turned to see where Kallori was and caught Shin about to strike.

“Malphur! No!” she shouted and Kallori whirled around to see Shin’s gun trained on her head and she stared at Spark and then back to Araeya, her eyes pleading sorrow as she realised; she had ignored their warnings.

“No, Araeya! I won’t back down on this one!” Shin’s hand begun shaking and Araeya turned to Saint who was still fixated on the Root Mind before him.

“Saint! Do something! He can’t take her from me…”

But Saint couldn’t hear her for Dendron was still calling him, keeping his attention on it, but something didn’t feel right. It was though it was charging something.

In the heat of the moment, Araeya ran towards Saint-14, still entranced by the Cyclops and knocked him to the ground, avoiding the darkness beam as he plummeted into the Fjord, causing the cliff edges to crumble.

Araeya and Saint laid on the floor covered in dust from the ground beneath them, Saint unresponsive. As Araeya propped herself up, coughing away the dust, the Cyclops had moved to a vantage point and studied them carefully. She crawled over to Saint, trying to get his attention, but still he laid completely still. She looked up to the cliffside in fear and saw Shin and Kallori still there.

Shin had taken advantage of the situation and jumped at Kallori, holding her in headlock, catching her off-guard when Araeya made a dive for Saint-14, Spark out of reach.

“I have to do this!” Shin yelled across the Fjord.

“Please Shin! There has to be another way to do this!” Araeya yelled back, still trying to get Saint back up.

“The Warlock will pay for what she’s done!”

With that, Shin transmatted away from the Black Garden with Kallori and Araeya knelt in shock at Saint’s weary side, unsure of what to do next. She removed his helmet to see if he would wake up. She shook him, patted his shoulders and pushed down on his chest, shouting in his ears trying to see if she could scare him awake.

Nothing would work. Saint wouldn’t wake up, yet the Cyclops did not turn its attention away from him.

“What do you want from us? Why did you bring us here?!” she shouted, standing up.

Dendron did not answer. Not to her.


	9. Hope for Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skivay ponders her thoughts as she worries for the team's safety inside the Garden for she has no idea what has gone on in her absence. Dendron, Root Mind continues to torment Saint, leaving him floating in confusion, making him question his life

Skivay was still wandering around outside the portal to the Black Garden, taking down any Vex trying to get inside it so as to help against the boss – her theory being that, if less Vex could get inside, then there would be less Vex to cause trouble for the team.

She and Cynder had begun to wonder why the team hadn’t returned yet, or why Araeya or Kallori hadn’t come back into contact. She knew taking down the boss to give Saint-14 what he needed would take some time, but the amount that it was taking was becoming increasingly concerning the more time passed.

_I should go back inside._

_No. Saint would never forgive me._

_But what if they’re in trouble? I can help._

_No. I’ll only make matters worse_

Skivay’s mind reeled a thousand miles a minute desperately trying to come to some form of conclusion as to what she should do, mentally arguing with herself. She continued to question herself even as she slaughtered an army of Vex trying to make their way through the gate.

Back inside the Garden, Asher’s body had disintegrated and drifted with the wind with the Fjord still cut off from the rest of the Garden and Araeya was still questioning the Cyclops that loomed over her from afar, trying to understand it.

She wasn’t getting on very well.

Nothing moved – only the wind around her, stirring up her cloak. She held her head in her hands.

For the first time in years, she was completely clueless as to what to do. Kallori had been taken away by Shin Malphur, Skivay was stuck on the wrong side of the gate, Saint was unconscious, and Asher was gone with the wind. All the greatest minds involved in the Vex were out of her reach and she couldn’t understand what Dendron wanted with Saint-14.

Why was Osiris controlling it? Why was it trying to kill them?

She had one more play.

Araeya rolled Saint onto his back and knelt on top of him and looked at his eyes as their light was dim. She looked to Geppetto for answers, who was hovering just above his head.

“He’s alive, but he isn’t responding to me, either.”

Araeya nodded. She took a deep breath in, channelling her core, and slapped Saint as hard as she could around his face and his eyes blinded her as they lit up in fury.

Without hesitation, he sat up, knocking her off and lunged for her neck, clutching it in one hand. She did not react. She did not need to – she knew that he wouldn’t kill her. He needed her, whether he realised it or not.

“Just what do you think you’re doing?” he asked, clenching his jaw.

Araeya didn’t need to use words to answer. She simply pointed to the Cyclops that had risen in height, almost in anticipation at what was going on between the Guardians. Saint instantly dropped her to the floor, and she gasped for air.

“Thank her, Saint. She just saved your life,” the Cyclops said, clear as day. His voice was sounding more and more like Osiris – the Vex with a human Mind, however; the sound was still distorted – a mixture of Vex and human.

Saint turned to look at Araeya on the floor as she rubbed her neck, and then back at Dendron.

“From what? There is nothing here but us…”

“From me…”

Saint stood back in shock. “But, why?”

Dendron moved to a vantage point closer to the two Guardians and looked directly at Saint, Araeya half on edge in case it tried another darkness blast.

“I cannot escape my fate, Saint. The Vex… They did things to me. They wanted to learn how the human mind worked so that they could simulate new possibilities – gain that one step closer to being able to simulate Guardians. I have said for years that no-one could control a Mind, but when you _are_ the Mind, the Vex can’t get to you anymore, so I agreed. But I answer to a much higher order. I cannot escape, Saint.”

“Then why call me here? Why torment me for all these years?”

“I needed you to stop obsessing over the Vex. I could see what it was doing to you and I needed to draw you here, so that you could see what an obsession can do to you… To find me so that you would stop…”

Saint took a moment to respond. “So… Why try to kill me?”

If the Cyclops could have sighed, it would have done so deeply. “I cannot live this life without you, Saint. Do you remember what you said all those years ago?”

“ _Time can take our bodies, but it cannot take our spirits_ ,” they said in unison.

“I want to take your body from this plane so that we may have our spirits freed into another,” Osiris admitted.

Saint sighed. “No, Osiris. Not like this. I cannot…” he looked away from the eye of the giant Cyclops and to Araeya. “I want to free you here. I want you in this plane, here with me.”

Suddenly, Dendron moved out towards the Waterfalls of Eden at the back of the Fjord and its eye turned red and its voice more demonic than ever – this time, projecting through Araeya.

“Then I will have to kill you.”

Saint and Araeya stood in shock as Osiris threatened their very lives. He had already taken Asher from them, but Araeya knew that if she was going to get a chance at getting Kallori back from Shin in one piece, she would have to help Saint get Osiris back first – a Warlock for a Warlock – but they couldn’t do it with just the two of them.

Araeya had faced giant Cyclopes before, but none that harboured the loved one of another – none that had been missing and presumed dead for several decades, integrated by the Vex into something else. It was something much more than anyone could comprehend.

To gain something back for her, she had to gain something back for someone else. _Who knows where Shin and Kallori were by now…?_

To her surprise, Shin had not taken Spark with them as he came bobbing over to her from the cliffside where the two were last seen.

“Shin didn’t take you?” she asked, flustered by their situation.

“No, and I don’t think he wanted to, either. He has another plan in mind, because he has made it possible for me to find her – almost as if he _wants_ me to…”

Twink materialised in front of Araeya. “I’ve called for backup,” he announced. “Skivay’s on the way and then Cynder, Spark and I will get to triangulating Kallori and Shin’s location. You should have enough firepower to either take the Cyclops out completely or convince it otherwise.” Araeya smiled as Twink hovered to her face and looked her dead in the eye, making contact with her forehead. “I believe in you.”

Saint was listening to the Ghosts as they deliberated what they would do, advising the Hunter and he picked up his helmet before wandering over to them, half an eye still on the Cyclops.

“I shall have Geppetto help you. Please, make sure that if we cannot get my Warlock back, you can get hers back,” he smiled as he rested his hand on Araeya’s shoulder. “At least one of us should come away with something, today.”

“Skivay is returning,” Araeya announced to Saint. He frowned, so she continued. “We need all the firepower we can get and with Shin and Kallori MIA, and Asher…” she cleared her throat as Saint averted his gaze. “Skivay has been outside the Vex gate this entire time waiting for us to come out. The Vex she has killed to stop them coming through! You wouldn’t believe it, Saint!”

Saint took a moment to let this news sink in and then he scoffed, but this time, not in annoyance. “Alright,” he agreed, putting his helmet back on. “If we cannot free Osiris for us, then we shall free him for himself. I am not leaving without him broken from the Vex Minds.” _Whatever that looks like in the end._

He nodded and walked towards the Cyclops at the back of the Fjord.

He couldn’t get far without walking into the Radiolaria and electrocuting himself, however; he had a voice that could carry a hundred words a thousand miles and he was not afraid to use it.

“Osiris!” he bellowed over the Fjord. “I am not leaving here without helping you first! The ball is in your court now – do what you think is right!” he held his arms out in an open gesture, showing Dendron that he was not afraid.

Dendron took note before charging up another darkness blast, aimed directly at Saint’s head. Araeya noticed and ushered the Ghosts to the farthest point of the Fjord away from it.

She rushed over to Saint, again preparing to push him out of the way.

She couldn’t explain why she felt that it was the right thing to do. She didn’t necessarily think he had the right to live over her, but she wasn’t about to sit back and watch as a fireteam member got killed.

Just as she dived into the same platform as Saint, he popped a Ward of Dawn over them and the Cyclops just continued to fire at it.

“I do not understand why he does not see that I want to help him,” he admitted, strained against the Cyclops’ force on the bubble.

Araeya knelt next to him, readying her weapons. “Perhaps he does. Perhaps he is testing you – to see how much you’re willing to help…” she didn’t look at him once while she planned her movements, but Saint couldn’t take his eyes off her. He was grateful that, of all his teammates he had brought with him today, she was the one still standing alongside him – a Hunter with her head on straight, feet firmly on the ground.


	10. Heroes Among Villains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In desperate times, people can often get flustered and panic, but when desperate times knock on Araeya's door, she can keep her head on straight like no-one else and that includes when desperate times just so happen to be a Vex Cyclops in the way of a certain Titan from redeeming himself after centuries of guilt. But Araeya isn't the only one with their head on straight as Geppetto also has a plan

Araeya stepped outside the Ward and fired her Mountaintop directly in the eye of the Cyclops, cracking its shell ever so slightly, its attention turned to her as she dipped back in the bubble to reload.

“Asher was right about one thing,” she began. “It thinks like a human…”

As she stepped back out and fired another round, interrupting another darkness blast, she saw that the eye itself had split right down the middle, losing its colour.

Inside, she could see the figure of a man in mirror position to Saint-14 as he held the Ward of Dawn with such strength, but this man wasn’t willingly holding his own. He was being _forced,_ his arms stretching out to the edges of the inner Cyclops.

It was as though Dendron controlled the body of Osiris, but Osiris controlled the body of Dendron and neither of them were giving in so easily.

Underneath the crack in the eye, Osiris was wincing against the pain of the Radiolaria swirling around, but at the same time, he was safe – the Radiolaria wasn’t killing him – as if he were immune. Looking into his face and underneath the pain, his mind was absent from the body. He was a shell of what was.

Araeya darted back inside the bubble.

“Osiris is inside the Cyclops itself!” she alerted Saint.

“Then we can get him out!” he responded in excitement, but Araeya was not so sure that it would be that simple.

“The Minds of them both have melded. If we separate one from the other, we could rupture them both and Osiris dies. Dendron is holding Osiris’ body hostage and using his mind for the greater of simulations deeper in the Garden and he is trying not to give in. With that much tension between the two, it won’t end well…”

Araeya and Saint looked between each other for a long time, all the while Dendron was firing darkness blasts as fast as it could against the bubble, hoping to break Saint’s strength in holding it.

Saint sighed. “I have studied the Vex for decades – centuries, even – and I had no idea that this was possible…” he paused, and he allowed his voice to break slightly. “I cannot lose him now. I have come too far…”

Dendron moved to another vantage point, heading towards the Ghosts at the entrance to the Fjord and Araeya didn’t take her eyes off them for one moment. She didn’t think the Cyclops knew that they were there, but she couldn’t take the chance, not if she was going to walk away from this.

Geppetto took note of the Cyclops’ movement, attempting to find a pattern in its positions, Twink and Spark still trying to triangulate Kallori’s location.

Saint’s Ward broke as he lost focus and he just knelt by the Fjord, unsure of what to do, while Araeya readied her Anarchy.

“Saint, whatever happens, please remember that we tried…”

Saint looked at her as she held aim at the Cyclops. Just as she was about to fire, he lunged for the weapon, causing her to misfire and Dendron moved further away.

“I can’t let you do it!” he yelled in desperation.

“Give it up!” Osiris shouted from behind a waterfall of Radiolaria.

“Never!” shouted Saint in response, clenching his fists. Void light still swirled around them as he got angry.

Geppetto got Araeya’s attention.

“Ari, you need to keep Dendron moving! I think I’ve found an anomaly in its movement!”

For a few moments after, allowing Saint to continue facing off against the Cyclops, Araeya fired several shots of Anarchy at it, missing every shot to keep it moving until Geppetto could work out what she needed.

“Osiris! Just let me in! I can help!” Saint pleaded, following the Cyclops wherever it went, occasionally punching it’s supports in frustration at the lack of reasoning Osiris was giving him.

“If I let you in, Saint, you may never come out.”

Saint used his shotgun on Dendron’s body and one of its supports collapsed, making Geppetto worry.

“Ari! I need you to get Saint away from it. I have a plan…”

Without hesitation, Araeya fired her last shot of Anarchy directly into a weak point in Saint’s armour, causing him enough pain to bring him to his knees and Dendron moved away again, allowing time for Geppetto to explain to Araeya her plan while she fetched the Titan to bring him to a safe spot.

“In the art of Vex movement, they don’t travel all in one piece. They have to split themselves, but because Osiris isn’t of Vex origin, it requires more Mind power to transport. He is the last piece of the puzzle to move, meaning that when Dendron moves, there is a split-second window where the Mind has left the body!” Geppetto beamed with hope as she watched the way that Dendron moved.

“So, what you’re saying is, if we catch Osiris just as Dendron moves, we can separate the two and Osiris lives?” Araeya asked as she checked over Saint, removing her sticky grenade from his chest plate over his laboured breathing.

“I can’t tell you that for sure, but it’s the best chance we have. The only problem is that we need to destroy the Cyclops body before Osiris is teleported with it – that’s an even smaller window…”

“One that we can’t deal with on just the two of us…” Araeya sighed, looking at Dendron as he swapped from vantage point to vantage point.

“We would need to know which vantage point it would take before it does,” Saint chimed in, sitting up.

The two Guardians took a few moments to process this news in the hope of formulating some form of plan. Eventually, they had an idea. The only problem was, they weren’t sure how well it was going to work.

“I can put a Ward down on the vantage point that it is _going_ to in order to blind it, but I need to know that…”

“But if it thinks like a human, then it should process things and react at the same speeds as a human. We may be able to force its play to our advantage,” Araeya added, loading her Mountaintop again. “I’ve already cracked its eye and you’ve broken one of its supports so, like a broken human, that should slow it down, surely?”

“I can still hear you,” reminded the demonic mechanical tones of Osiris from the back of the Fjord.

“Good,” Saint-14 said, smirking under his helmet.

Araeya nodded, getting to work in forcing the Cyclops around the Fjord as much as she could. The ball was in her court and she was going to play it wisely.

This wasn’t a battle of physical strength. This was the Mind games and Araeya had the strongest mind to contest Dendron, but she needed to be quicker, putting immense strain on her.

One such that she used to force Dendron into a pattern.

In the pattern of grenades, Dendron would get cocky and begin to guess where Araeya would fire next, allowing Saint access to the same intel without making it blindingly obvious. Dendron would begin to prematurely teleport to the vantage point that would follow the pattern Araeya was using and guide Saint into the attack.

Because Dendron was the Vex that thought like a human, it couldn’t calculate the same possibilities – nor to the same extent – of the Guardians’ plans as a Vex total and therefore it couldn’t predict a proper outcome, making it an open target to stumble on any given scenario, just as a human could stumble – an exploit for the Guardians to conquer.

It didn’t recognise a pattern that only repeated itself twice in any given space of time. It wasn’t enough information to pick up on.

Saint had learnt what Araeya was doing and readying himself by the vantage point he would use to strike. In that bubble would be where he would catch Osiris as Dendron would try to move away from the blinding light of the Ward and Araeya would strike the Cyclops in the open window as it teleported away.

At first, the plan went accordingly and Araeya shot out her last grenade as the last part of the pattern, forcing Dendron directly into the path of Saint-14 as he popped his Ward of Dawn straight over the top, blinding it.

As the Cyclops’ body moved to teleport away, its reactions vastly impaired, Saint grabbed Osiris’ waist and held on as their life depended on it. Even with his immense strength, he couldn’t separate him from the Cyclops body, and so instead, he clung tightly with all his might so as not to let him go.

He looked at Osiris, mindless and seemingly lifeless until his eyes shot open, glowing bright red. Those eyes were not his own and he whispered, still half-mechanically:

“Время это дьявол.”

But Saint was not going to give up so easily. He looked away from the eerie gaze of the Warlock, scrunching his eyes tightly, trying to erase the sound of Vex control.

Over on the other side of the Fjord, Araeya panicked as she had not enough ammo to take down the Cyclops whole as it tried to fully transition onto the vantage point directly in front of her.

“What are you waiting for?!” Saint bellowed, still clinging onto Osiris for dear life. “Use your super!”

Araeya looked down at her hands filled with Arc. Her super would not kill the Cyclops in time to save Osiris. By the time she’d cast it and ran over there, the Mind would have regained Osiris’ body and they were back to square one, lacking an advantage.

Luckily, she didn’t need to.

After taking her sweet time, Skivay launched her way through the Radiolarian barrier surrounding the Fjord and Waterfalls and slammed her Burning Maul directly onto the Cyclops, collapsing all its supports underneath the force, smashing its eye and separating the body from the mind and Osiris collapsed into Saint’s arms, motionless…exhausted.


	11. To End a War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stunning everyone with her entrance, Skivay notices that she may have just redeemed herself for Saint-14, but her job in the team isn't done yet - she needs to guide the Titan and his injured Warlock back out of the Garden while Twink feeds Araeya news of Kallori's whereabouts

Brushing the dust off her shoulders and sending Cynder over to the other Ghosts, Skivay walked towards Araeya who was stood gawking, her Mountaintop half open after she’d tried to reload it.

“H-how did you know to just destroy it?” she asked, her mouth open in surprise.

“Cynder was talking with Geppetto throughout my journey back up the mountain. She was keeping me informed of your plan just in case something happened, and I needed to just intervene,” she said, smiling, the pride emanating from her face.

“I might just think that a certain Titan saw everything…” Araeya replied and she looked over to Saint-14 as he walked back over to them, Osiris cradled in his arms – weak, but alive.

As he laid him down on the floor, propping him up with his arm, it became clear that Osiris had been a pawn for the Vex for many years. He had been experimented on; hence his eyes were not his own, but they were not red and demonic anymore – they had no colour. _Osiris_ had no colour. He was pale and painfully thin, kept alive by only the Cyclops shell around him.

The team were lucky. No-one else need dies in the Garden today.

Skivay and Araeya looked at Osiris, stunned that the Warlock was alive, and Saint took his helmet off to look at Skivay, his eyes kind. Skivay noticed the other Titan staring at her and she panicked.

“No, no, I am not angry with you, Titan,” he began softly. He held his hand out in gesture to her own and she handed it to him. Taking it kindly in his own, Saint held it to his head as he had done with Osiris’ all those years ago and closed his eyes. “Спасибо,” he whispered. (“Thank you”).

Laying her hand by her side, Saint looked at Skivay one last time. “I am sorry I said that you were not a worthy Titan. You have shown me that you are most worthy, after all, and I am glad to have had you on my team, today.” His voice was soft and forgiving – a real change of heart since they last engaged.

For the first time since they began their venture, Skivay relaxed. She had done her mentor proud – everything she’d wanted to do.

They each looked back upon Osiris who had begun to wake up a bit more, his eyes focussing on his surroundings and his body becoming more reactive. He looked to Araeya, then to Skivay and finally back to Saint and he smiled wearily.

Slowly, he reached out his hand towards Saint, mustering every inch of might he had to touch his face – to hold his hero: The Titan who never gave up on him. The Titan that spent every waking moment of his life chasing after something based on hope.

The barrier of Radiolaria fell from around them, allowing the route for their way out to become exposed once more.

He was still so weary that he could not speak, but he didn’t need to. Saint held his hand and knew that he’d be okay.

After a few moments of bliss, Twink, Cynder, Spark and Geppetto returned with news.

“We know where Kallori is,” Twink announced.

“It’s…not good…” Spark continued, his Light dim as he looked at Araeya.

Araeya slumped and held her head in her hands, Skivay supporting her. Saint tugged at her cloak and she turned to him.

“Go now. I have my Warlock. Go and get yours,” he smiled. “You can leave us here. We will be fine.”

Araeya nodded and Twink summoned their ship, Spark in tow, transmatting out before the rest of the team.

“For now, we must leave,” Saint added to Skivay. “You shall lead the way; I shall carry Osiris to safety.”

Skivay looked between Saint and Cynder before nocking her bow in preparation for the extraction of the Vex’s strongest Mind in decades.

Carefully, Saint scooped Osiris up in his arms, wrapping his arms around the back of his neck and began following Skivay back up the mountain, Skivay hauling the other Titan up after her and Cynder scanning the areas in front of them.

They spent hours retracing their steps back out of the Garden and not a single Vex went unnoticed, past, present or future.

Saint recognised the Vex from the past – the ones he encountered fighting through the Infinite Forest. They were the ones that stole from him all those years. Skivay was not merciful. Her prowess got them through the walls of Goblins and Hobgoblins, Minotaurs and Harpies.

Upon fighting the Vex stopping them from coming out of the Black Garden, it became apparent that the reason that the Vex didn’t attack when they first arrived was because they _wanted_ Osiris gone.

The Vex that engaged Skivay previously was one from the past timeline from when Saint was following Osiris. It engaged to determine whether the team was competent enough to take on the Cyclops while the Vex on the other side of the Lake took note. After Skivay killed it, they deemed the team to be inefficient and left them to rot in the Garden at the hands of Dendron.

They attacked as the 3 Guardians left because they needed to make it look good for the other Minds of the Garden so as not to let them believe they allowed Dendron to be removed, however; they did not directly attack Saint-14 or Osiris for they had calculated that, should either one of them die in the Garden, the other would return to cause trouble for them and killing them both would lead to a full-blown assault on them all – something they knew they couldn’t afford with the Hive still pining after them.

When they reached the gate back to Venus Osiris had woken up and was ever more aware of his surroundings and asked to be put back down.

“I wish to say my goodbyes to the Garden that has kept me from certain death, however they went about it,” he whispered. Saint could still detect remnants of that mechanical tone in his voice but was at ease knowing he was almost back to as normal as possible.

Slowly lowering him to his feet, Saint supported Osiris as he stood tall and looked over the Garden. He smiled, but he was not pleased by all he had been forced to do.

“I helped to create this hell. I must tear it down, someday…”

Saint looked him in his wary eyes. “You don’t have to _do_ anything, yet, old man…”

“Soon,” he replied, and turned to walk towards the gate where Skivay and Cynder were waiting.

In coming through the other side, Saint saw all the empty Vex husks littered across the terrain and gawked at them. He turned to Skivay and called her back.

“Titan! Did you do this?” he asked in surprise.

Skivay blushed from under her helmet. “I kind of thought that every Vex that never made it through that gate was one less Vex that you had to deal with…”

Saint and Osiris exchanged surprised gazes. “Even after I told you to go back to the Tower, you stayed right here and killed all these Vex?”

Skivay nodded.

“But this is enough Vex to end a war!”

She did it. She impressed the Titan and he smile beamed brighter than ever.


	12. In the Light and In the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Araeya left the team in the Black Garden in search of Kallori, hoping Shin Malphur didn't get to her before she did, and instead found a very complicated situation where life was at stake.

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere out in the EDZ, Araeya was flying over the area that Spark and Twink had worked out where Kallori roughly was. She had been there over an hour and still no luck in finding neither her nor Shin.

“You guys are absolutely sure that this is where she is, yeah?” she asked nervously.

“And still is, according to my tracker,” Spark added, getting frustrated. He disliked the way his Guardian spoke to him sometimes, but he never wanted to see her dead. He cared about her too much for that – even hidden in all the sarcasm he threw at her from time to time.

Araeya sighed and decided to get out of her ship and continue her search on foot, but she wasn’t on the ground two minutes when trouble found her and she was stood on an abandoned road with a gun to her head.

Praxic bands attacked the Ghosts, wrapping around them and stopping them from expanding to transmat their Guardians. She knew, then, that this was only going to end one way.

She held her hands up slowly.

“Turn around, carefully,” said the person with the gun.

Araeya turned to see Shin Malphur still with a tight grip on Kallori as she struggled against his force.

“I knew you’d follow me. I wanted to turn this one into a little show for you. That way, I can still get to you while getting my job done at the same time. I just can’t go wrong!” Shin was evilly pleased. He believed Araeya would be a thorn in his side since their last conversation in the Black Garden when she ratted him out to Kallori and called him on his ‘excuses’ – something he wasn’t willingly going to deal with.

“Why does everything have to be so _extra_ with you?” Kallori grunted, still trying to break out of Shin’s grip. Instead of responding, he just side-eyed her. No matter what she did, he just would not let go.

“There has to be a way of working this out, Shin. You’re not the bad guy here, but if you take her from me, then you will be, and I don’t want that for you.”

“Why do you care?” Shin shook his gun at Araeya’s face.

“Because whether you believe it or not, I’ve been through hell and back and I’m still whole. I am you if you put the gun down now and let her go. You can move on from whatever this is.”

Shin sighed. “You didn’t understand in the Garden, so you won’t understand now!” he yelled, losing his temper. “Turn and walk up that cliffside.”

Araeya listened to his every demand, and with a gun to her head, she didn’t have a lot of choice.

Shin walked close behind her, dragging Kallori with him, muttering to himself.

“No-one knows what it’s like to walk the path I have, to have seen all I have seen, done all I have done…the tragedies…”

Still facing forward, Araeya decided to chime in. “You only believe that because you won’t let anyone in…”

Shin’s face glowed an angry red as he became increasingly infuriated by Araeya’s relentlessness. “You’ll say anything to let this Warlock go, won’t you?”

“She hasn’t done anything to you!”

Shin laughed. “You must be joking! She is riddled with Dark tendencies. Give her the choice between Light and Dark and she’ll swap sides in half a second. She won’t think twice about you, the Light or anyone else.”

This got Kallori’s attention. She hadn’t thought about it until now, but perhaps he was right. She _was_ likely to fall to the Dark if given the choice. It just seemed like the easier option than having to follow rules and be righteous all the time. She hated acting like the hero when she never felt like it. Even during their expedition through the Black Garden to save a Warlock legend, something didn’t sit right with her and Saint knew it, too.

Saint had been keeping half an eye on her during his research and watching at how much less of a Guardian she was becoming.

They reached the top of the cliffside and Shin rotated around Araeya, keeping her at gunpoint at all times and he went to stand with his back to the edge, Kallori held in front of him, Araeya still holding her hands by her head. In the anxious silence, she thought she would try something again.

“Let me in, Malphur,” she began. “I can help you so we can all walk away from this.”

By this point, Shin was trying to block her out. “You’re so righteous!” he shouted, his body shaking. “You are the total opposite of this creature; how can you even love her? You think the world just needs a heart-to-heart conversation and the Dark will go away, don’t you? News flash! It won’t – as you can see by the monster I have in my grasp. She could be the very root of our undoing and you think a ‘talking-to’ will solve it?! _I’ll_ solve it in one bullet!” His anger echoed over the cliffs and Araeya could see that it was going to take more than words to break him out of his mental prison.

She thought she could keep her composure, but after Malphur questioned her love for Kallori, something inside her just snapped and she dropped her arms and walked towards him, every step angry.

“ _How can I love this creature?!”_ she reached for her Outbreak, but realising that she left it in her ship, she had to maintain some mental state as she was extremely vulnerable. “Because I can see beyond what’s in front of me, dammit! I can see much more than what she chooses to show.”

“Don’t come any closer,” Shin interrupted. Araeya ploughed on.

“Yes, she is easily swayed towards the Dark, but I know that I can get her back when she does. Ying to Yang, black and white, right and wrong – we need a counterpart to know when to stop, to know when we’re straying too far.”

“I won’t say it again!”

“Dammit if you’d seen all she’d done for me…”

Araeya looked at Kallori, both holding a mountain of fear behind their eyes, but choosing to hide it in such a way that only they knew where it was, and it cemented everything that Araeya had said. She turned to look at Shin who remained unmoved and tightened his grip on the Warlock, the gun still pointing at Araeya.

“…you’d know that there’s more Light in her than you could ever understand.”


	13. Two Can Hold Their Own

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shin remembers his first encounter with Saint-14 in the light of having his payment in his grasp. Even then, he wasn't completely sure what he was getting into or who he was dealing with. At the time, he didn't care.

Saint-14 would rarely leave his work in the Tower Hangar for anything, let alone a meeting with someone he didn’t know he could trust, but he saw an opportunity for negotiation and he was willing to seize it for the benefit of his work.

The EDZ wasn’t usually this cold or stormy, but he didn’t care. He was used to dark atmospheres with being surrounded by one for decades, missing Osiris due to his own failures. Not a lot would make him uneasy, but there was something about this Hunter that made him a tad nervous. From what he’d heard in the streets of the City, this Hunter had made quite the reputation for himself as a manhunter when he dealt with all the Dredgens single-handedly using the enemies of the humanity as tracking devices.

This brought him to Saint’s attention.

A cloaked figure dropped down from a tree behind him, keeping to the shadows, yet the Titan did not flinch.

“I didn’t expect you to show,” Saint said, keeping his back to the figure.

Slowly, the Hunter walked forward into the light of the stormy moon. “I like to get a look at those who feel they need my services.” His voice was low and raspy at first as he looked the Titan up and down, confused. “You seem capable of handling yourself. What could you possibly need me for?”

Saint turned to see Shin Malphur hooded next to him, looking onward. He shuffled his shoulders. “I have something lost that needs finding, and I’ve been told you’re the one to go to.”

Shin cleared his throat. “Something? Or _someone_?”

Saint shot a stare so powerful at him that he shivered and returned his gaze, the moonlight illuminating the shine in his eyes, showing his lack of fear.

“It was many, many years ago and I believe the Vex could harbour the very memories from the day I lost him… I need to know what really happened to him – I do not believe he is dead.” Saint said, eventually, turning to look back at the river, the water’s glint reflecting off his helm.

“The _Vex?!”_ Shin scoffed, still looking the Titan up and down, not yet over his stance. “I’m afraid your friend is long gone…”

With a heavy sigh, Saint took Shin by the shoulder and felt the Hunter tense as he did so. He looked him dead in the eyes. “My entire life’s work has led me in hope that he is just lost somewhere, but with no way to trace him, I am stuck with my only option – you. Your work in using the enemy to find people is something I cannot ignore, and I wish to employ you in my expedition to the Black Garden and search the Vex for what they know. I shall not give up and if you stand in my way, I shall merely go elsewhere.”

There was a moment of silence that hung in the air, thick as fog, while Shin contemplated the proposition that the Exo had brought before him, the wind howling over the river in front of them. The two Guardians stood side by side, neither of them moving a muscle, the wind beneath their cloak and mark.

“I will need something in return,” Shin said eventually, turning to Saint and keeping his voice low. He didn’t look at the Titan, almost out of fear.

“I have Glimmer…”

Shin shook his head and laughed. “I cannot be bought, Mr. Titan. That is not how I work. I answer to a much higher order. Glimmer will not suffice.”

Shin continued to chuckle while Saint thought for a moment.

“Maybe there is someone that you are looking for,” he whispered, leaning into him and his laughing ceased.

“How did you know?”

“You are a manhunter – your job is never done. You wouldn’t have come here tonight if you were busy and weren’t ready to negotiate. You’re looking for someone and you are about to ask me if I know of their whereabouts, aren’t you?”

Shin looked at Saint in shock until his face relaxed into a little smile. “Haha, very perceptive of you, Titan. I have misjudged you!” he calmed to this realisation and cleared his throat. “There _is_ someone I’m looking for – a Guardian. Anyone I have spoken to on information about her is either able to give me nothing, or is too afraid to-”

“A Warlock, by any chance?” Saint interrupted, folding his arms.

“…yes… Awoken…” Shin narrowed his eyes.

“I know of the Warlock you seek and know why – I know of her… _tendencies…_ I have seen what she can do, and I agree – something needs to be done.”

“Can you get her to me?”

“I might have a way, yes, but you must play your part first. Come with me on my raid to the Black Garden, examine the Vex and report your findings. The Warlock will join us – which will not take much convincing – and, if your job is done properly, then I shall let you walk away with her at the end, but she remains under _my_ watch until then, understood?”

“Or what?” Shin challenged.

Saint laughed and squeezed his hand on his shoulders, feeling the bones crunch beneath his fingers. Shin winced against the pain, but he did not fight it – he embraced it, almost as though he was used to it.

“Or your services are no longer needed, and I will keep the Warlock myself, in spite.” He smiled from beneath his helm and Malphur could sense this. Once Saint let go of his shoulders, Shin shook himself and turned to walk away, stopping to look over his shoulder.

“Very well,” he began. “Then I shall play your little escapade. A Warlock for a Warlock.”

Before Saint could answer, Shin had disappeared from his sight and the wind stopped rustling in the trees and swirling around his mark. He was left alone, stunned at the knowledge that Shin knew of the person he was so desperately missing.

Nevertheless, two problems would get sorted at the end of it. He was sure of it.


	14. For One and For All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Araeya has one shot to try and talk Shin Malphur down from the cliff edge, but Kallori has other ideas and, since their escape from the Black Garden, what happened to Osiris in that time becomes more apparent as he regains his strength in his new form

“It was Saint that came to me with this proposition! I only had to find his Warlock and he would give me this one and my job would be complete! For the first time in years, I wouldn’t have any Darkness to waste my damn time hunting for!” Shin was edging closer and closer to the end of the cliffside and Araeya really needed him to see sense before he toppled over and took Kallori with him.

“Who do you answer to?” she asked, backing away slightly.

Shin grunted. “The Praxic Warlocks called me forward. They told me that, if I could remove this Warlock from the equation, that they could fix me!”

“Aunor wouldn’t do something like that.”

“It wasn’t Aunor. I never caught his name… It was so unquestionable I couldn’t say no… I just want the Dark to go away…” Shin’s eyes began to well with tears as he continued trying to blink them back. Araeya had seen this look only once before – in herself.

“You’ve spent so long hunting the dark that you’ve let it slowly eat you from the inside. Put the gun down and we’ll help you – the right way…”

Kallori shot a stare at Araeya as she still fought against Shin’s grasp. “You’re joking, right?” she questioned the Hunter. “After all this, you’re willing to let him go?”

“Kallori, you’re not helping…” Araeya warned as Shin turned his gun to Kallori’s head.

“This is just the kind of thing I’m talking about – she doesn’t care who dies, just so long as they’re not a problem for her. I can see her in the future – she will have swayed to the Dark just like the Dredgens and there will be no stopping her, but she won’t be any different…”

Araeya realised something. “Is this what this is all about? The Dredgens?” she paused and looked at Shin in his breathless manner. “You’re scared of them, aren’t you? You’ve spent so long hunting every single one of them that they got to you… And you don’t know how to make it go away.”

“I told you, you could never understand!”

Araeya scoffed and Shin turned the gun back on her and Kallori had waited long enough. She slammed her hand on Shin’s leg and sent an Arcbolt running up his spine, loosening his grip on her as she freed herself from his hold.

Shin desperately tried to regain his balance as he started to slip on the edge of the cliff. Kallori ran towards Araeya and she wrapped her arms tightly around her, clinging on to her as for the first time, but Araeya was worried for Shin and reached for his hand as he began toppling over, but he did not reciprocate and instead shot her in the leg with a single bullet, causing her to tumble and fail to reach his hand in time.

Scared for her safety, Kallori hauled Araeya over her shoulders and ran back down the cliffside, Araeya watching Shin as he disappeared over the edge.

He didn’t make a sound as he went down.

Kallori ran all the way back down to the road where their Ghosts still laid, trapped in Praxic Bands, and placed Araeya on the ground in front of her.

“You’re fucking stupid, Ari. You know that, don’t you?” she said, tending to her wound.

Araeya coughed as she broke the Ghosts free of their bands. “Could say the same about you,” she replied. Kallori wasn’t best impressed and glared at her as Skivay’s ship hovered just above them.

“Oh good! I was worried about you guys,” she began as she transmatted in, but paused on looking at Araeya’s leg. “Want to tell me what happened? Where’s Shin Malphur?”

“He’ll be fine,” Kallori said without missing a beat. “It’ll take a lot more than a fall off a cliff to deal with him but we’re good for now.”

Araeya brushed Kallori’s hand off her leg and stood up, looking down on her has she knelt in front. She was not in the slightest bit amused. “For someone who was literally _wanted_ , you don’t seem all that bothered… I don’t see why you didn’t charge him with Arc the moment he had you…”

Kallori stood up slowly and her body towered Araeya, but she was used to that by now. “Had to make it look good,” she replied, bluntly.

Araeya hadn’t been this confused in quite a while. “Make it look good? Was all this just a show for you?” She folded her arms.

Skivay looked between the two of them and backed away slightly in case they were about to argue – they were known for ‘explosive’ arguing. She looked at their Ghosts also backing away, although Twink was a little closer to Araeya this time, almost in preparation for rez.

Smiling, Kallori took Araeya by the shoulder. “I did you a favour on this one. Shin needed a way out of the game, but you were more likely to help him _stay_ in the game and he didn’t want to make you feel worthless. You touched him back in the Garden with your inner strength and he appreciated that. While you were flying around looking, we were hidden in a cave talking through the plan.”

“…’plan’?” Araeya asked, looking worried. Now was not the time for Kallori to start owing people.

“Yeah, ‘plan.’ We had to make it look good for his Ghost – or… _Jaren’s_ Ghost, as he insisted – as they were going to use footage as proof of his contract fulfilled. At least, until it went… ‘awry’ and I got away.” Kallori winked and chuckled at a job well done, but Araeya was still lost.

“So, is Shin okay, then?”

Kallori nodded. “Yeah, he’ll be absolutely fine! Like I said, earlier – it’ll take a lot more than a fall off a cliff to deal with him.”

Araeya thought for a moment. She didn’t expect this to go down the way that it did and had hoped that she could bring Shin back into the Light and give up the solo-manhunter game that he’d got himself entangled in, but some people don’t want to be saved and she had to come to terms with that – respect it. “What happens now, then?”

Skivay smiled. “The Pigeon and the Phoenix are back at the Tower recovering nicely, Shin has stopping hunting underneath our noses, we are all in one piece… Asher…” she lowered her head and took her helmet off.

The team hadn’t forgotten what happened in the Black Garden as they saw the Vex-obsessed Awoken Warlock disintegrate before their eyes at the hands of Dendron, Root Mind, all because he had experimented on his own arm and wouldn’t admit that he’d lost control of it.

With perfect pronunciation, Araeya added, “Время это дьявол.”

“Time is the devil,” Kallori responded looking between the Hunter and the Titan, taking Araeya’s hand and squeezing it tightly in her own, treasuring her soft touch once again.

It wasn’t two weeks later that Araeya and Kallori were wandering the Hangar in search of some materials for their Sparrows that they bumped into Saint-14 and Osiris arriving back in Saint’s ship. As Saint took his helmet off, he smiled and turned to Osiris, arm in arm.

Osiris was a very different man to how he was when he first went missing. Whatever the Vex did to him, they were not kind about it.

His eyes were still not his own and instead resembled that of a Hobgoblin. He wasn’t completely blind, but he would walk around with his arms linked with Saint just to be sure – his sight was still incredibly fuzzy as he adjusted to his new surroundings. Osiris was also unsteady on his feet considering they had been replaced with a Minotaur’s and he had not been able to walk for decades, but he was adapting much better than anyone else had anticipated.

Saint had just returned from Mercury with Osiris, showing him how much the world had changed while he was missing – playing catch-up. It would take months to show him everything he had missed, but Saint was more than happy to spend that time with him. It was something he had been dying to do from day one and he was not going to waste this opportunity.

Araeya greeted Osiris with a friendly bow. She didn’t know the best way to greet who would turn out to be quite the legend and Kallori chuckled.

“You are looking well – both of you,” she said, politely. Saint smiled.

“As are both of you.” He turned to Kallori and his smile disappeared slightly. “Warlock, I…” he trailed off.

Kallori shook her head and waved him off. “Just… Don’t worry about it, okay? If it meant that I could save the one I loved, I, too would have made the same impossible choice, however selfish it seemed to everyone else.” She laughed and cuddled into Araeya, laying her head on her shoulder putting Saint at ease.

“I am sorry,” he said after a moment. He patted her shoulder and turned to Osiris who was beaming with pride.

“You have all come a long way. Lessons have been learnt and prices have been paid… Some more steep than others,” he turned to where Saint’s ship had anchored next to his workstation where Asher’s backpack had been laid since they returned from the Garden.

Araeya sighed. She admired Asher for his courage against the odds, however egotistical he was, and seeing only his backpack left behind hurt her a bit.

It made them all realise that time really was the devil. When you cross the devil the wrong way, you get burned.


End file.
